Jefferson Psychiatrists Honored by Philadelphia Psychiatric Society

On November 16, 2013 the Philadelphia Psychiatric Society met to honor recipients of key awards and two Jefferson psychiatrists received prestigious awards.

Richard Sobel MD received the Practitioner of the Year Award. Dr. Sobel has devoted 27 years of service to our Department at Jefferson. During that time he has served as an inpatient attending on 2 inpatient units and Director of our 14 Thompson general adult unit. He sat on our Graduate Medical Education and Quality Assurance Committees. He is now a highly rated and sought-after supervisor in our residency program.

Outside of his work at Jefferson, Dr Sobel has been practiced state-of-the-art general adult psychiatry as well as developed respected expertise in treatment of chronic pain. He is one of a relatively small number of psychiatrists board-certified in Pain Medicine. Dr. Sobel currently serves on the Board and as president of the Philadelphia chapter of the American Pain Society.

Dr. Sobel earned his Bachelor’s degree at MIT, then went on to medical school at Pennsylvania

State University College of Medicine in Hershey. He returned to Boston for his psychiatry residency in the Harvard system at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

To all who have worked with Dr. Sobel or been taught by him, he is distinguished by his intellectual depth, his broad command of the field, and his particular expertise in pain medicine.

Kenneth Certa MD received the Daniel Blain Award for dedication and service to the profession of psychiatry. Over the past 28 years at Jefferson Dr. Certa has served as inpatient attending and Unit director, Crisis Center Director, Director of Emergency Psychiatry, Director of Acute Psychiatric Services, and since 2007, Training Director for our Adult Psychiatry Residency Program. He has been a role model psychiatrist for trainees, receiving multiple institutional and national teaching awards. For years he has been the go-to faculty member for our residents when they face a complex acute clinical problem.

Dr. Certa has also served organized psychiatry very conscientiously. He has been active in both the Philadelphia and Pennsylvania Psychiatric Societies, having held leadership positions in both organizations. He currently serves in the important role of co-chair of the Pennsylvania Psychiatric Society’s Government Relations Committee. He also represents Pennsylvania at the American Psychiatric Association Assembly and serves as an American Psychiatric Association delegate to the American Medical Association House of Delegates.

A graduate of the intense 7-year Penn State-Jefferson B.S.-M.D. program, Dr Certa’s intensity continues to be channeled into his related passions of training future generations of psychiatrists and optimizing the professional and political worlds in which all of us practice.